KKR targets $474m Bis Industries IPO – report

The Australian Financial Review reported that Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS and Goldman Sachs are advising BIS on the share sale, which could raise A$300-500 million ($285-474 million) according to various reports. KKR plans to retain a stake in Bis, and will use the proceeds to pay down debt.

KKR put Bis on the block last year at around $1.8 billion including debt after negotiations to refinance the loans used to buy the company failed. The private equity firm was liable to repay A$905 million by June 2013. A subsequent refinancing saw A$728 million of short-term debt and $308.6 million of long-term debt rolled into one long-term package.

Bis was established in 2006 after KKR paid A$1.83 billion for Brambles Industrial Services and Cleanaway Australia. Cleanaway Australia, a waste and recycling business, was later sold to competitor Transpacific Industries for A$1.25 billion. The rest of the business, including coal handling and haulage, steel processing and storage, logistics and distribution services, were renamed Bis Industries.

Other private equity firms are also looking to Australia's IPO market for exits and fresh capital. Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital Group are targeting a $658 million December IPO for Nine Entertainment to pay down debt and allow Oaktree to make a partial exit.

Pacific Equity Partners is hoping to raise as much as A$340 million through the an offering of shares in credit-checking firm Veda Advantage later this year.

Last month OzForex Group - an Australian online foreign exchange services provider backed by The Carlyle Group, Accel Partners and Macquarie Group - saw its shares jump nearly 30% on its first day of trading following a A$440 million IPO.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Exits
• Industrials
• Buyout
• KKR
• IPO
• Australia
• Exit
• buyout
• Commodities